Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-10-19
THE CRIMSON SCARF.
A Romantic War Story That Reads
Almost Like Dream.

"How old did YOU say?" asked the Com
mander-iu- Chief.
"Nineteen."
Sand the man:v
"a little older"
The COmmander-in-C Chief puffed his cigar
at thoughtful intervals. The war was bv
twenty-five years thing of the past, but
as head of great commercial enterprise
military title still clung to him from out
of his war experience, and he did not dis
like il, for some of his war memories APP
peared to be his most cherished mental
treasure.
''InIthe fall of 1861" he began, 'I was
stationed with a detachment at Paint
Rock, Ala. We were drawing on the
enemy for supplies-foraging, in fact.
Our crackers and hard tack we got from
Stevenson, but for fodder for our horses
and any thing to add sumptuousness to
the appearance of the frying-pan we had
TO depend on the country. For some weeks
had sent out the wagon train to the east,
the southeast, and down the valley of the
Paint Rock creek. The only direction left
for investigation was at the west, where,
at n distance of twenty-one miles, was
Huntsville, then the capital of Northern
Alabama, which, up to the time of the
waS had been a wealthy, arstocratic and
fashionable city. Well, one pleasant
morning l sent the wagons across the
creek and followed them with a guard of
twenty men. 1t was reported from time
to time that the country ahead of US was
full of guerrillas, but we saw no sign OF
them and for two months had no trouble
whatever with any foe.
After crossing the creek the wagons
took a road which wound along the foot
III.
which rose green, heavily wooded and
picturesque at our backs. We passed sew
eral small cearings and plantations,
whose log houses were filed with hot
blooded and hottempered Southern women,
whose evident desire to flaw US with their
hngernails rather interfered with that
sweet spirit of hospitality for which the
South IS famous. AT distance of seven
miles | hated tine detachment at a cool
but sinister-looking place in the road,
known to all the country round as 'The
Gap.'
"Well, after a rest, we kept on, and a
few miles further we came ON plantation
of 100 acres, with a large and comfortable.
looking residence near the roadside. The
wagons had reached there long before Us.
They were being rapidly filed from a row
of well-stored corn-cribs at the back Of
the house. / had just gotten Off my horse
near the door when two girls came toward
me, and if | were not telling this story,
gentlemen, | would honestly declare that
they were the two prettiest girls | ever
saw in my life.
'They were both tall and slender, with
graceful and womanly figures They
were dressed in darb-bue calico, and had
no artificial aids to their fresh young
beauty. Their faces were intelligent and
full of resolution, yet marked by that shy
ness which belongs to girls who are well
born and bred in comparative seclusion.
The eldest, Ellen, was dark-eyed and dark
haired. Addie was seventeen, two years
younger than her sister, and a yellow
haired and blue-eyed blonde. The ap-
partition they presented astonished us.
think all the men took off their hats in.
stinctively. l know did.
ut was Ellen who spoke, the other stay
ing little behind. Sir she said, in
troubled voice, you look like a gentle
man. One of your men has taken our
guitar. 1t is all that we have left, and it
is great consolation. VIII you not be
good enough to have it returned.'
"The guitar was returned to her forth
with as quickly as the man could be found
who had it. She was profuse in her
thanks, and the light in the younger sis
eNA Cg % ~ bhC VI tuG
ment indicated how highly il was valued.
The corn and supplies they did not APP
pear to grieve over particularly, as | pre-
vented any destruction of the cribs or any
unnecessary damage to the property
Consequently | was very Hospitality re-
ceived in the house. The family consisted
of an old gentleman named Sunderland,
his wife and three daughters Sunder.
land was a well-to-do planter, though too
old to take arms. He was a doctor bv
profession and n Methodist preacher by
choice. His family circle was. i'm its re.
finement and the beauty of the girls,
something charming, particularly to a
horse soldier who for some wears
had known Cnly the roughness of the
camp. The eldest daughter was married.
her husband being a CAPTAIN in IN.
Southern army. The other two were otir
fair petitioners, and with them eniove
Hattering del gree of popularity from the
startn
The Commander-in-C Chief stopped and
gazed with a satisfied smile into the Ala.
bana of twenty years ago
well, )" he said, picking up the thread OF
the story, II need only say that their fate
was in my hands, that all is fair in love
and war, and that from that day forth !
simply owned the place, eorn-fields, Mig
gers, guitars and Methodist preachers, all
included. And, gentlemen" and he
dwelt with some particular and meaning 2
emphasis upon the ''and;'' ''she, Ellen, was
nineteen and was tweaty-three.
During the next two months ali our
foraging somehow was in their direction
J. seemed perhaps to the horses that every
thing available in the food line had
migrated to the district back OF the Sun
derland plantation which had to be passed
in order to light on any thing at all.
! There was something ebout the
Sunderland cuisine, too, that
must have appeared very tempting
to my men, for 1 did not willingly, l
believe, .aias a meal. Ellen and |, IN fact.
were consta stiy together. The old folks
made no objection. TIE blas eyes OF the
goden-baired sistsr beamed the s7Teetest
kind OF approval, the days were Ioag, aud
the twill shts OF the dim old fir woods per-
! feet, aRiI-I believe mentioned ths fact,
gentieiDeR.r said the Communicating
Chief, with sigh, ssthat she was nineteen
aad was twenty-three.
II might remark parentheticaiiy that
there is noting in life quite so fascinating
as 10 be isolated In the wilderness in COM
pany with beautiful woman. Several
books have been written with that one
idea to carry them. and they have always
caught the public's eye. There was no
sentimental talk between as. The crack
Of the guerrilla rife, the distant boom OF
battle. the war amn<a in 4ha air aud fl.-